Remove Paint from Interior Wood Trim

Learn how to remove paint from interior wood trim. Find out how Ready Strip can remove layers of paint from wood trim and how replacing your trim or molding might be an easier option than stripping the paint.

LESLIE: Now we’re going to help Scott in Illinois remove some paint[1]. How can we help you?

TOM: And Scott, how old are these doors and the trim that you’re trying to strip?

SCOTT: Oh, they’re probably since the 60s.

TOM: Hmm, OK. So you probably have multiple layers of paint on there. Well there’s a couple of things that you can do. First of all, if you use paint strippers [2]most paint strippers are very, very toxic but there’s maybe one or two nontoxic paint strippers that I like. One is made by a company called Back to Nature Products[3]. It’s called Ready-Strip. They’re website is Ready-Strip.com. And it works pretty good because it’s not stinky and it goes on, it turns color when it’s time to remove it and you can pull up probably one to two layers of paint with every application. You are going to have to probably do multiple applications because with trim that hasn’t been refinished since the 60s you’re going to find lots of layers of paint that have to come off.

SCOTT: Oh, OK. And that’s Ready-Strip?

TOM: Ready-Strip. It’s called Ready-Strip. Ready-Strip.com.

LESLIE: It’s probably the best to work with on the interior just because from a caustic standpoint.

TOM: And the other issue to consider is whether or not you want to refinish the trim or replace the trim[4]. With trim that is from the 1960s, you know, it’s not an antique. So you may want to think about maybe just doing the doors but actually physically replacing the trim because it actually might end up being a lot less labor and probably will be a little more expensive but it’ll come out looking great.